{"id":16102,"date":"2017-10-19T09:42:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16102"},"modified":"2017-10-19T09:42:14","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:42:14","slug":"knowing-from-the-whole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16102","title":{"rendered":"Knowing From the Whole"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Exploring the Mystics with Cynthia Bourgeault<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/knowing-from-the-whole-2017-10-19\/\"><strong>Knowing from the Whole<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Thursday, October 19, 2017<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qKzXZPFBwLQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault reflects on another significant element within the Christian mystical lineage. The Cloud of Unknowing<\/em> <em>is a 14<sup>th<\/sup>-century spiritual classic written by an anonymous English monk. Perhaps this shows ego in a subservient role. But the writer was also anonymous for practical reasons. Meister Eckhart had just been silenced by the Pope in 1329 for emphasizing independent study, thinking, and experience, to which this author was also committed. It took many generations for the Church to affirm the value of inner, personal experience. Today Centering Prayer\u2014which was drawn from <\/em>The Cloud of Unknowing<em>\u2014is practiced by many Christians around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Cloud of Unknowing <\/em>is a mystical text, and like most mystical texts it can only ultimately be accessed at the level of consciousness from which it was written. \u201cLike attracts like,\u201d as the old hermetic saying goes. The best way to engage a text written from a state of deep contemplative stillness is to match that state as closely as you can in yourself by meditating your way into the text rather than diving in with your analytical mind. In my latest book, <em>The Heart of Centering Prayer<\/em>, I explore this text from a different angle than how <em>The Cloud<\/em> is typically interpreted. Traditionally, <em>The Cloud <\/em>is understood as focusing on mystical marriage where the goal is to direct desire away from earthly objects toward heavenly ones until spiritual union with God can be achieved. This approach, while certainly true of many other mystical texts, misses the subtle shift the author makes. Rather than emphasizing the seemingly obvious subject\/object split between lover and beloved, the author invites us into an entirely different way of knowing and experiencing Love.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the following lines from chapter 16, describing Mary Magdalene as a model of the contemplative transformation the author has in mind:<\/p>\n<p>Instead, she hung up her love <em>and her longing desire <\/em>in this cloud of unknowing and she learned to love a thing that she might never see clearly in this life, neither by the light of understanding of her <em>reason nor by a true feeling of sweet love in her affection<\/em>. [2]<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, the kind of love this author has in mind is of a fundamentally different quality than what we usually mean by love.<\/p>\n<p>The love presented here is not <em>affectivity <\/em>or feeling<em>, <\/em>but describes what we would nowadays call <em>nondual perception anchored in the heart<\/em>. The heart\u2019s energetic bandwidth is <em>intimacy, <\/em>the capacity to perceive things from the inside by coming into sympathetic resonance with them. In contrast to the mind, which perceives through differentiation (I am me, because I am <em>not <\/em>you), the heart takes its bearings directly from the whole (the \u201cI\u201d and the \u201cyou\u201d drop out), through a process that scientists nowadays describe as \u201cholographic resonance.\u201d Imagine trying to describe that in the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century! Ahead of his time, the author gropes for metaphors to describe an entirely different mode of perception and understanding.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gateway to Silence:<\/strong><br \/>\nFall fearless into Love.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>The Unheeded Secret<\/p>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><!-- \/.col-12 --> <!-- \/.row --><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>Jesus answered, &#8220;My kingdom is not of this world.&#8221; \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=John+18%3A36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John 18:36<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<p><!--\n\n\n<div class=\"mobile-sharing-button\"><\/div>\n\n\n--><\/p>\n<div class=\"top-sharing\">\u00a0The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, \u201cThe kingdom of God does not come with observation\u2026.For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+17:20-21\">Luke 17:20-21<\/a>). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person\u2019s life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord\u2019s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.<\/p>\n<p>It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College\u2014 its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God\u2019s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring the Mystics with Cynthia Bourgeault Knowing from the Whole Thursday, October 19, 2017 Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault reflects on another significant element within the Christian mystical lineage. The Cloud of Unknowing is a 14th-century spiritual classic written by an anonymous English monk. Perhaps this shows ego in a subservient role. 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